Disposable cutlery may be provided as a less expensive alternative to reusable cutlery, for example, at restaurants and social gatherings where it is undesirable or cost prohibitive to clean the cutlery for reuse. However, providing disposable cutlery may present a number of potential drawbacks related to the nature in which it is dispensed.
For example, providing disposable cutlery in a loose or unpackaged fashion, such as in loose form in a receptacle containing the disposable cutlery, may result in patrons taking more cutlery than necessary, thereby increasing the cost of providing the cutlery. In addition, providing loose or unpackaged cutlery may present concerns regarding whether dispensing cutlery in such a manner is hygienic. As a result, it may be desirable to dispense disposable cutlery in a manner other than in a loose or unpackaged form.
The above-noted concerns may be addressed by dispensing disposable cutlery from dispensers configured to contain a supply of the cutlery and dispense a disposable utensil upon operation of a patron. However, loading a quantity of unsecured or loose utensils into the dispenser may be a time consuming and tedious task, thereby potentially undermining the desirability of dispensing utensils via a dispenser.
In order to address this potential drawback, disposable cutlery may be provided in the form of bundles or cartridges containing a plurality of similar utensils. For example, disposable cutlery, such as spoons, forks, knives, and sporks, may be packaged such that a stack of like utensils are held together via a band, wrapper, tie, string, or other securing device. However, after such a device is removed from the utensils, it will usually be discarded as waste. Alternatively, or in addition, a stack of like utensils may be packaged in a cartridge configured to be placed within the dispenser, with the utensils being dispensed from the cartridge via the dispenser. However, similar to the securing devices, the cartridge will usually be discarded as waste after all of the utensils of the cartridge have been dispensed.
In addition, it may be desirable to provide utensils that are not prone to flipping or otherwise changing from a desired orientation during either a process of being loaded into a dispenser, or a process of being dispensed from a dispenser. For example, during dispensing of a stack of loose utensils, the utensils may have a tendency to flip or rotate within the dispenser as the stack slides within the dispenser, which may lead to jamming the dispenser, thereby potentially compromising the utility of the dispenser.
Additionally, it may be desirable to provide utensils in a form that are capable of being reliably dispensed from a dispenser one at a time. Utensils that are loosely received in a dispenser may have a tendency to dispense such that more than one utensil is unintentionally dispensed by a patron. This results in defeating one of the potential advantages of dispensing utensils via a dispenser—reducing costs associated with patrons taking more utensils than necessary.
It may also be desirable to provide a group of utensils that may be divided into smaller groups of utensils that are coupled to one another. In particular, utensils held together by a retaining device or cartridge may not be easily divided into smaller groups of utensils. This potential drawback may cause problems when, for example, only a few utensils remain in a dispenser, and it is anticipated that a large number of utensils will be dispensed. In such a situation, someone responsible for restocking the dispenser may need to wait for all of the utensils to be dispensed and risk having a delay between the time at which the dispenser is emptied and when it is reloaded with new utensils. Alternatively, they may need to load a portion of a group of utensils and either discard or store the remaining loose utensils.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a system and method for addressing one or more of the potential drawbacks discussed above.